Blog

Teen Board: Mortal Instruments City of Bones Movie: A New Perspective

When you’re a big fan of a book, it can be hard to see the book be made into the movie. Sure it’s fun and exciting, but no matter how great the movie looks, there’s still a small part of you that’s nervous to go see the movie. This is what I was feeling when I went to go see City of Boneson Wednesday.

The opening music began playing, the setting came into view and I couldn’t stop analyzing every single part of the movie. Every time something happened that wasn’t in the book, or when something was altered from the book, I felt the critic inside of me start whining. But, it’s important to remember that not every little detail that’s in a book can be translated onto the big screen. Scenes have to be cut, characters have to be taken out, and events have to be changed. But in the end, isn’t the storyline what’s most important? After all, at the end of the movie, if the plot stays the same, it’s still the same book you fell in love with.

I reminded myself of this multiple times during the movie, not because it was a bad movie; No! As a matter of fact, it was an extremely good movie! The only problem was that it wasn’t exactly as I imagined it. I feel like this is part of the problem with every book-to-movie adaptation. The fans complain, not because the actor is bad or a certain scene got cut, but because in their mind, the character was played this certain way or that scene had a certain significance to them. That’s why some people hold the opinion that movies ruin books. On the contrary, movie don’t ruin books; movies change the person’s idea of a book.

Instead of that one person’s idea of the book, movies accumulate a whole group of people’s ideas of the book. The director, producers, actors, set designers and various other people all have a say in the movie. If the fans are open minded enough, the movie can even give you a new idea or perspective about the book. This is what I enjoyed about watching the City of Bones movie. Although it stuck very close to the book, the parts that were altered gave me a new perspective into the book.

Adult Books You Want to Read

Throughout the year, Teenreads.com features adult books from Bookreporter.com, our site for adult readers, that we think will have definite appeal to a teen audience. In the spirit of sharing, we are now spotlighting a selection of titles each month from Bookreporter.com that we believe are great reads that you might enjoy.Explore our picks here!

Books On Screen

September's Books on Screen roundup includes the feature films Rebel in the Rye and Victoria & Abdul; the series premiere of "Marvel's Inhumans"; and the DVD release of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.